Establishing the father one year after birth
Pursuant to Art. 6 of the Act of April 2, 2009 on Polish citizenship, changes in determining the person or citizenship of one or both parents are taken into account when determining the minor's citizenship if they occurred within one year from the date of birth of the minor.
However, if the father's name has not been previously established, even if the father's name is established later than one year, it must be taken into account when determining the minor's citizenship. For example, if it is established that the father is a Polish citizen, then the minor should be considered a Polish citizen, even if he has already completed the first year of life.
Of course, the question arises when such a situation may arise. Certainly when we are dealing with an illegitimate child and no birth certificate was prepared at all. Of course, these situations are currently almost unheard of in Poland, but they cannot be ruled out somewhere abroad. However, what if the birth certificate was prepared, but the name of the father is unknown and only a fictitious father's name was entered in the birth certificate? In my opinion, we are dealing with a similar situation here, because in Art. 6 of the Act of 2 April 2009 on Polish citizenship refers to the actual (i.e. legal) establishment/change of the father as an existing natural person, and not only a formal entry in the birth certificate.
However, it is impossible to agree with a different view expressed in the doctrine. Jacek Jagielski, in his commentary on the Polish Citizenship Act (published: WK 2016), stated that establishing the father's person may also be the so-called negative finding, i.e. "stating that the parents are unknown or that their citizenship is undetermined, and then, within a period of one year from the birth of the minor, these findings were verified to the effect that they turned out to be inconsistent with the actual facts (included in moment of birth of the minor).
While in relation to the issue of citizenship we should agree in certain cases (e.g. the father is granted Polish citizenship after 1 year from the birth of the child, but not in situations where the father has been found to have had Polish citizenship since his birth, but after 1 year). year from the birth of the child), if the father is unknown, we cannot talk about any identification of the father, but about the lack of identification of the father as a specific natural person.
